The present invention relates to a lithography pattern data generation method, a patterning method and a charged particle lithography system for use in drawing design patterns onto a substrate to be patterned by using an exposure beam of charged particles in fabrication of a semiconductor device, a liquid crystal display device or a thin film magnetic head device.
In the photolithography technique currently used for fabricating semiconductor devices, a bright line of a mercury lamp (i-line) of a wavelength of 365 nm or a KrF excimer laser beam of a wavelength of 248 nm is used as a light source. Furthermore, an ArF excimer laser beam of a wavelength of 193 nm is to be used as the light source of the next generation. However, f or further refinement of devices, there are limits in the photolithography. Therefore, a variety of lithography techniques have been proposed, among which lithography using charged particles, in particular, an electron beam is attracting attention.
Now, a lithography method using a conventional electron beam lithography system will be described with reference to a drawing.
FIG. 18 is a schematic diagram of an electron optical lens barrel of the conventional electron beam lithography system. As is shown in FIG. 18, above awafer 202 supported on the top surface of a movable stage 201 is disposed an electron gun 204 for emitting an electron beam 203 to the wafer 202. Between the movable stage 201 and the electron gun 204, a first aperture 205 having a first opening 205a in a square shape, a selective deflection device 206 for selectively deflecting the electron beam 203 having passed through the first opening 205a, a second aperture 207 having a second opening 207a in a square shape, and a reducing lens 208 for reducing an exposure beam with a square section, that is, the electron beam having passed through the second opening 207a, are successively disposed in this order in the direction from the electron gun 204 toward the movable stage 201.
On the inside of the reducing lens 208, a primary deflection device 209A for deflecting the exposure beam is disposed, and on the inside of the primary deflection device 209A, a secondary deflection device 209B is disposed in an upper portion and a tertiary deflection device 209C is disposed in a lower portion.
The lithography system having the aforementioned structure is operated as follows:
First, the electron beam 203 emitted from the electron gun 204 supplied with an acceleration voltage of approximately 50 kV is shaped, by the first opening 205a, to have a square section in a perpendicular direction to the proceeding direction of the electron beam 203. The shaped electron beam 203 is deflected by the selective deflection device 206 before reaching the second opening 207a, so that the electron beam 203 having passed through the second opening 207a can be shaped to have a desired square section, for example, a rectangular section.
Next, the electron beam 203 having been shaped into a desired square shape is allowed to irradiate a predetermined area on the wafer 202 by the deflection devices 209A, 209B and 209C. Thus, exposed patterns corresponding to design data are successively drawn.
The primary deflection device 209A has a deflection area in a rectangular shape of approximately 3 mm by 5 mm at most. In general, a pattern to be drawn is sufficiently larger than the deflection area. Therefore, in exposure using an electron beam, a pattern formation area is divided into partial exposure areas each in the shape of a stripe with a width corresponding to or smaller than the maximum deflectable width, and the patterns are drawn in each of the divided partial exposure areas. Accordingly, a pattern data extending over plural partial exposure areas is divided into design data of each partial exposure area to be stored in a data storage unit of the system.
FIG. 19 shows an example of the conventional lithography pattern data generation method by dividing the lithography pattern data into the stripe areas. As is shown in FIG. 19, lithography pattern data 211 through 216 are arranged on a data arranging area 210, which is divided into first through third stripe areas 221, 222 and 223 each with a width of 5 mm. The lithography pattern data 211 and 212 fall within the first stripe area 221, and the lithography pattern data 213 extends over the first stripe area 221 and the second stripe area 222. Similarly, the lithography pattern data 214 extends over the second stripe area 222 and the third stripe area 223. Accordingly, for example, the lithography pattern data 213 is generated dividedly between the first stripe area 221 and the second stripe area 222.
The conventional lithography pattern data generation method, however, have the following problems: Since exposure is conducted by deflecting the electron beam in each of the stripe areas 221, 222 and 223 as is shown in FIG. 19, the positional accuracy of the exposed patterns is sufficiently high within each stripe area. In contrast, since the movable stage 201 supporting the wafer 202 shown in FIG. 18 is moved between adjacent stripe areas, there arises a connection error in an exposed pattern extending over the adjacent stripe areas. Accordingly, as is shown in FIG. 20(a), a first partial exposure area 221A corresponding to the first stripe area 221 can be away from a second partial exposure area 222A corresponding to the second stripe area 222, or the second partial exposure area 222A can overlap a third pattern exposure area 223A corresponding to the third stripe area 223.
Such a connection error derives from insufficient accuracy in positioning the movable stage 201 or insufficient stability of the electron beam output. Such a connection error leads to the following defects: In the lithography pattern data 213 and 214 extending over the adjacent partial exposure areas, when the adjacent pattern exposure areas are away from each other, disconnection can be caused, for example, in a negative resist, as is shown as a first defective pattern 217A of FIG. 20(b), or when the adjacent pattern exposure areas are slightly away from each other, a line width failure where the line width is locally reduced can be caused as is shown as a second defective pattern 217B of FIG. 20(b). Alternatively, when the partial exposure areas overlap each other, a third defective pattern 217C where the line width is locally increased can be caused. In any case, such defects lead to a failure in a circuit pattern, which can degrade the yield of devices.
In view of the aforementioned conventional problems, an object of the invention is forming a resist pattern in a desired shape by preventing deformation of the resist pattern derived from a connection error between adjacent partial exposure areas in using a charged particle beam.
In order to achieve the object, in generation of lithography pattern data from design data according to the invention, plural design data are arranged in a data arranging area corresponding to a design pattern formation area, and the data arranging area is divided into plural partial exposure areas. From plural design data on the divided data arranging area, design data extending over two or more partial exposure areas are extracted, and the data arranging area is divided again so that at least one of the extracted design data can fall within one partial exposure area, or the extracted design data are subjected to multiple exposure.
Specifically, the first lithography pattern data generation method of this invention for generating, from plural design data corresponding to design patterns, lithography pattern data to be drawn correspondingly to the design patterns on a substrate by using an exposure beam of charged particles, comprises an area dividing step of dividing a predetermined area where the plural design data are arranged, which corresponds to an area where the design patterns are to be formed, into plural partial exposure areas each in the shape of a stripe with a width corresponding to a deflection width of the exposure beam; a data extracting step of extracting, from the plural design data, design data each falling within any of the plural partial exposure areas as a first design data group, and extracting design data each extending over two or more of the plural partial exposure areas as a second design data group; a first lithography pattern data generating step of generating first lithography pattern data of each of the plural partial exposure areas from the design data belonging to the first design data group; and a second lithography pattern data generating step of generating second lithography pattern data of each of the plural partial exposure areas from the design data belonging to the second design data group.
According to the first lithography pattern data generation method, with respect to the second design data group consisting of the design data extending over two or more of the plural partial exposure areas, the lithography pattern data are generated based on other partial exposure areas obtained by differently dividing the predetermined area. Alternatively, the lithography pattern data are generated by conducting multiple exposure with the predetermined area divided into the original partial exposure areas. Thus, a connection error can be prevented from occurring in the design data belonging to the second design data group.
In the first lithography pattern data generation method, in extracting the first design data group in the data group extracting step, a design data, among the design data each extending over two or more of the plural partial exposure areas, which has a portion crossing a boundary of the partial exposure areas and having a predetermined size or larger is preferably included in the first design data group. In this manner, among the design data extending over two or more plural partial exposure areas, the design data having the portion crossing the boundary of the partial exposure areas in the predetermined size or larger can belong to the first design data group falling within any of the plural partial exposure areas. Even in this case, since the crossing portion of the design data extending over the partial exposure areas is in the predetermined size or larger, the width of a connecting part between the divided design data can be larger in the exposure than the width of another design data not divided between the exposure areas. Accordingly, the design data is minimally affected by a connection error. Also, since the number of times of repeating the process, that is, a general technique of data processing, can be reduced because the number of data belonging to the second design data group is decreased, resulting in improving the through-put.
The second lithography pattern data generation method of this invention for generating, from plural design data corresponding to design patterns, lithography pattern data to be drawn correspondingly to the design patterns on a substrate by using an exposure beam of charged particles, comprises a first area dividing step of dividing a predetermined area where the plural design data are arranged, which corresponds to an area where the design patterns are to be formed, into plural first partial exposure areas each in the shape of a stripe with a width corresponding to a deflection width of the exposure beam; a data group extracting step of extracting, from the plural design data, design data each falling within any of the plural first partial exposure areas as a first design data group, and extracting design data each extending over two or more of the plural first partial exposure areas as a second design data group; a first lithography pattern data generating step of generating first lithography pattern data of each of the plural first partial exposure areas from the design data belonging to the first design data group; a second area dividing step of dividing the predetermined area into plural second partial exposure areas any of which covers at least one of the design data belonging to the second design data group, the plural second partial exposure areas being different from the plural first partial exposure areas; and a second lithography pattern data generating step of generating second lithography pattern data of each of the plural second partial exposure areas from the design data belonging to the second design data group.
According to the second lithography pattern data generation method, at least one of the design data belonging to the second design data group does not extend over two or more partial exposure areas. Therefore, the number of design data divided between two or more partial exposure areas among the plural design data can be definitely reduced, resulting in improving the accuracy of the exposed patterns. As a result, disconnection or deformation of an exposed pattern derived from a resist pattern having a connection error can be prevented, which improves the performance of semiconductor devices and increase the production yield.
In the second lithography pattern data generation method, in the second area dividing step, each of the plural second partial exposure areas preferably has a width different from a width of each of the plural first partial exposure areas. In this manner, in dividing the predetermined area into the plural second partial exposure areas, the second partial exposure areas can be divided to have a width different from that of the first partial exposure areas. Therefore, any of the design data belonging to the second design data group can easily fall within any of the second partial exposure areas, resulting in reducing the number of design data divided between the plural partial exposure areas.
In the second lithography pattern data generation method, in extracting the first design data group in the data group extracting step, each of the plural first partial exposure areas is preferably enlarged by a predetermined width, and the first design data group is preferably extracted on the basis of the plural first partial exposure areas with the enlarged width. Since the range of extracting the design data as the first design data group is thus enlarged by expecting a margin of a deflection width of the exposure beam, even a design data positioned on the boundary of the first partial exposure areas can fall within one partial exposure area. Thus, the number of design data belonging to the first design data group can be increased and on the contrary, the number of design data belonging to the second design data group can be reduced. Accordingly, in repeatedly dividing the partial exposure areas several times, the repeated processes can be rapidly converged, resulting in improving the through-put.
In the second lithography pattern data generation method, in extracting the first design data group in the data group extracting step, a design data, among the design data each extending over two or more of the plural first partial exposure areas, which has a portion crossing a boundary of the plural first partial exposure areas and having a predetermined size or larger is preferably included in the first design data group.
The third lithography pattern data generation method of this invention for generating, from plural design data corresponding to design patterns, lithography pattern data to be drawn correspondingly to the design patterns on a substrate by using an exposure beam of charged particles, comprises a first area dividing step of dividing a predetermined area where the plural design data are arranged, which corresponds to an area where the design patterns are to be formed, into plural first partial exposure areas each in the shape of a stripe with a width corresponding to a deflection width of the exposure beam; a first data group extracting step of extracting, from the plural design data, design data each falling within any of the plural first partial exposure areas as a first design data group, and extracting design data each extending over two or more of the plural first partial exposure areas as a second design data group; a first lithography pattern data generating step of generating first lithography pattern data of each of the plural first partial exposure areas from the design data belonging to the first design data group; a second area dividing step of dividing the predetermined area into plural second partial exposure areas any of which covers at least one of the design data belonging to the second design data group, the plural second partial exposure areas being different from the plural first partial exposure areas; a second data group extracting step of extracting, from the second design data group, design data each falling within any of the plural second partial exposure areas as a third design data group, and extracting design data each extending over two or more of the plural second partial exposure areas as a fourth design data group; a second lithography pattern data generating step of generating second lithography pattern data of each of the plural second partial exposure areas from the design data belonging to the third design data group; a third area dividing step of dividing the predetermined area into plural third partial exposure areas any of which covers at least one of the design data belonging to the fourth design data group, the plural third partial exposure areas being different from the plural second partial exposure areas; and a third lithography pattern data generating step of generating third lithography pattern data of each of the third partial exposure areas from the design data belonging to the fourth design data group.
According to the third lithography pattern data generation method, in addition to the steps of the second lithography pattern data generation method, design data each falling within any of the plural second partial exposure areas are extracted as the third design data group and design data each extending over two or more of the second partial exposure areas are extracted as the fourth design data group. Therefore, the number of design data extending over the boundary of the partial exposure areas among all the design data can be further reduced, resulting in further reducing connection errors.
In the third lithography pattern data generation method, in the second area dividing step, each of the plural second partial exposure areas preferably has a width different from a width of each of the plural first partial exposure areas, and in the third area dividing step, each of the plural third partial exposure areas preferably has a width different from the width of each of the plural first partial exposure areas or the width of each of the plural second partial exposure areas.
The third lithography pattern data generation method preferably further comprises, after the third lithography pattern data generating step, a repeating step of repeating sub-steps of dividing the predetermined area into plural partial exposure areas and generating lithography pattern data until none of the design data extends over two or more of the plural partial exposure areas. In this manner, a connection error can be avoided in all the lithography pattern data of the design data.
In the third lithography pattern data generation method, in extracting the first design data group in the first data group extracting step, each of the first partial exposure areas is preferably enlarged by a predetermined width, and the first design data group is preferably extracted on the basis of the first partial exposure areas with the enlarged width, and in extracting the third design data group in the second data group extracting step, each of the second partial exposure areas is preferably enlarged by a predetermined width, and the third design data group is preferably extracted on the basis of the second partial exposure areas with the enlarged width.
In the third lithography pattern data generation method, in extracting the first design data group in the first data group extracting step, a design data, among the design data each extending over two or more of the plural first partial exposure areas, which has a portion crossing a boundary of the first partial exposure areas and having a predetermined size or larger is preferably included in the first design data group, and in extracting the third design data group in the second data group extracting step, a design data, among the design data each extending over two or more of the plural second partial exposure areas, which has a portion crossing a boundary of the second partial exposure areas and having a predetermined size or larger is preferably included in the third design data group. In this manner, a design data having a portion crossing the boundary of the partial exposure areas in the predetermined size or larger can be included in the first design data group or the third design data group because a connection error is scarcely caused therein. Therefore, the numbers of design data belonging to the second design data group and the fourth design data group can be reduced.
The third lithography pattern data generation method preferably further comprises, after the third lithography pattern data generating step, steps of extracting, from the design data belonging to the fourth design data group, a design data which has a size, along a widthwise direction of each third partial exposure area, larger than a width of each third partial exposure area and includes a wide portion having a length, along a perpendicular direction to an exposure direction corresponding to an extending direction of the third partial exposure areas, smaller than the width of each third partial exposure area and a width, along the exposure direction, larger than a predetermined value, and dividing the predetermined area into plural fourth partial exposure areas with the wide portion positioned on a boundary of the fourth partial exposure areas. Among the design data belonging to the fourth design data group, a design data in the size along the widthwise direction of the third partial exposure area larger than the width of the third partial exposure area cannot fall within one partial exposure area even when the partial exposure areas are differently divided. Therefore, the repeated processes cannot be converged. However, in the aforementioned manner, a design data having a wide portion with the width along the exposure direction larger than a predetermined value is extracted and the predetermined area is divided with the wide portion of the extracted design data positioned on the boundary of the partial exposure areas. Therefore, a connection error is scarcely caused even in the exposed pattern obtained from the divided data.
In the third lithography pattern data generation method, in the third lithography pattern data generating step, with respect to a design data having a size, along a widthwise direction of each third partial exposure area, larger than a width of each third partial exposure area, an auxiliary pattern data for preventing deformation of an exposed pattern to be drawn on the substrate is preferably added onto a portion where the design data crosses a boundary of the third partial exposure areas. A design data in the size a long the width wise direction of the third partial exposure area larger than the width of the third partial exposure area cannot fall within one partial exposure area even when the predetermined area is differently divided, and hence, the repeated processes cannot be converged. However, in the aforementioned manner, the auxiliary pattern data for preventing the deformation of the exposed pattern is added to the portion of the design data where it crosses the boundary of the third partial exposure areas. Therefore, a connection error is scarcely caused even in the exposed pattern obtained from the divided data.
The fourth lithography pattern data generation method of this invention for generating, from plural design data corresponding to design patterns, lithography pattern data to be drawn correspondingly to the design patterns on a substrate by using an exposure beam of charged particles, comprises a data group generating step of generating, from the plural design data, a first design data group having a pattern width larger than a predetermined value and a second design data group having a pattern width smaller than the predetermined value; a first area dividing step of dividing a predetermined area where the plural design data are arranged, which corresponds to an area where the design patterns are to be formed, into plural first partial exposure areas each in the shape of a stripe with a width corresponding to a deflection width of the exposure beam; a first lithography pattern data generating step of generating first lithography pattern data of each of the plural first partial exposure areas from the design data belonging to the first design data group; a data group extracting step of extracting, from the second design data group, design data each falling within any of the plural first partial exposure areas as a third design data group, and extracting design data each extending over two or more of the plural first partial exposure areas as a fourth design data group; a second lithography pattern data generating step of generating second lithography pattern data of each of the plural first partial exposure areas from the design data belonging to the third design data group; a second area dividing step of dividing the predetermined area into plural second partial exposure areas any of which covers at least one of the design data belonging to the fourth design data group, the plural second partial exposure areas being different from the plural first partial exposure areas; and a third lithography pattern data generating step of generating third lithography pattern data of each of the plural second partial exposure areas from the design data belonging to the fourth design data group.
According to the fourth lithography pattern data generation method, before dividing the predetermined area into the plural first partial exposure areas, the first design data group consisting of design data with a pattern width larger than a predetermined value and the second design data group consisting of design data with a pattern width smaller than the predetermined value are previously generated. Therefore, even when the predetermined area is divided into the plural second partial exposure areas in the same manner as in the second lithography pattern data generation method, the number of data belonging to the fourth design data group extending over the first partial exposure area is smaller than the number of data belonging to the second design data group obtained in the second lithography pattern data generation method. Accordingly, even when the process is repeated with the predetermined area differently divided into partial exposure areas, the number of times of repeating the process can be largely reduced.
The first lithography pattern fabrication method of this invention for generating, from plural design data corresponding to design patterns, lithography pattern data to be drawn correspondingly to the design patterns on a substrate and drawing the generated lithography pattern data on the substrate by using an exposure beam of charged particles, comprises a first area dividing step of dividing a predetermined area where the plural design data are arranged, which corresponds to an area where the design patterns are to be formed, into plural first partial exposure areas each in the shape of a stripe with a width corresponding to a deflection width of the exposure beam; a data group extracting step of extracting, from the plural design data, design data each falling within any of the plural first partial exposure areas as a first design data group, and extracting design data each extending over two or more of the plural first partial exposure areas as a second design data group; a first lithography pattern data generating step of generating first lithography pattern data of each of the plural first partial exposure areas from the design data belonging to the first design data group; a second area dividing step of dividing the predetermined area into plural second partial exposure areas any of which covers at least one of the design data belonging to the second design data group, the plural second partial exposure areas being different from the plural first partial exposure areas; a second lithography pattern data generating step of generating second lithography pattern data of each of the plural second partial exposure areas from the design data belonging to the second design data group; a first patterning step of drawing first exposed patterns corresponding to the first lithography pattern data on the substrate by adjusting the exposure beam in accordance with the first lithography pattern data; and a second patterning step of drawing second exposed patterns corresponding to the second lithography pattern data on the substrate by adjusting the exposure beam in accordance with the second lithography pattern data.
According to the first lithography pattern fabrication method, the predetermined area where the design data are arranged is divided into the plural second partial exposure areas any of which covers at least one of the design data belonging to the second design data group, and which are different from the first partial exposure areas. Therefore, the number of design data divided between two or more partial exposure areas among the plural design data can be reduced. Accordingly, in drawing the second exposed pattern on the substrate on the basis of the second lithography pattern data including the design data divided between two or more partial exposure areas, the number of divided design data can be reduced, resulting in reducing exposed patterns with connection errors.
In the first lithography pattern fabrication method, in extracting the first design data group in the data group extracting step, each of the first partial exposure areas is preferably enlarged by a predetermined width, and the first design data group is preferably extracted on the basis of the first partial exposure areas with the enlarged width.
In the first lithography pattern fabrication method, in extracting the first design data group in the data group extracting step, a design data, among the design data each extending over two or more of the plural first partial exposure extracting step of extracting, from the plural design data, design data each falling with in any of the plural first partial exposure areas as a first design data group, and extracting design data each extending over two or more of the plural first partial exposure areas as a second design data group; a first lithography pattern data generating step of generating first lithography pattern data of each of the plural first partial exposure areas from the design data belonging to the first design data group; a second area dividing step of dividing the predetermined area into plural second partial exposure areas any of which covers at least one of the design data belonging to the second design data group, the plural second partial exposure areas being different from the plural first partial exposure areas; a second data group extracting step of extracting, from the second design data group, design data each falling within any of the plural second partial exposure areas as a third design data group, and extracting design data each extending over two or more of the plural second partial exposure areas as a fourth design data group; a second lithography pattern data generating step of generating second lithography pattern data of each of the plural second partial exposure areas from the design data belonging to the third design data group; a third area dividing step of dividing the predetermined area into plural third partial exposure areas any of which areas, which has a portion crossing a boundary of the first partial exposure areas and having a predetermined size or larger is preferably included in the first design data group.
In this case, in the second patterning step, multiple exposure is preferably conducted on a design data belonging to the second design data group. In this manner, a connection error caused in a design data extending over the boundary of the partial exposure areas, in particular, a connection error caused when the partial exposure areas are away from each other, can be prevented. In addition, since the multiple exposure is conducted on merely the design data extending over the second partial exposure areas, the through-put can be improved.
The second lithography pattern fabrication method of this invention for generating, from plural design data corresponding to design patterns, lithography pattern data to be drawn correspondingly to the design patterns on a substrate and drawing the generated lithography pattern data on the substrate by using an exposure beam of charged particles, comprises a first area dividing step of dividing a predetermined area where the plural design data are arranged, which corresponds to an area where the design patterns are to be formed, into plural first partial exposure areas each in the shape of a stripe with a width corresponding to a deflection width of the exposure beam; a first data group covers at least one of the design data belonging to the fourth design data group, the plural third partial exposure areas being different from the plural second partial exposure areas; a third lithography pattern data generating step of generating third lithography pattern data of each of the plural third partial exposure areas from the design data belonging to the fourth design data group; a first patterning step of drawing first exposed patterns corresponding to the first lithography pattern data on the substrate by adjusting an output state, a deflection state or an irradiation position on the substrate of the exposure beam in accordance with the first lithography pattern data; a second patterning step of drawing second exposed patterns corresponding to the second lithography pattern data on the substrate by adjusting the output state, the deflection state or the irradiation position on the substrate of the exposure beam in accordance with the second lithography pattern data; and a third patterning step of drawing third exposed patterns corresponding to the third lithography pattern data on the substrate by adjusting the output state, the deflection state or the irradiation position on the substrate of the exposure beam in accordance with the third lithography pattern data.
According to the second lithography pattern fabrication method, the lithography pattern data to be drawn on the substrate correspondingly to the design data are generated from the plural design data corresponding to the design patterns by the third lithography pattern data generation method of this invention. Therefore, the number of design data extending over two or more partial exposure areas among all the design data can be further reduced. As a result, in drawing the third exposed patterns on the substrate on the basis of the third lithography pattern data including the design data divided between two or more partial exposure areas, the number of connecting portions between the divided design data can be reduced, and hence, the number of connection errors can be further reduced. Accordingly, further accurate exposed patterns can be obtained.
In the second lithography pattern fabrication method, in extracting the first design data group in the first data group extracting step, each of the first partial exposure areas is preferably enlarged by a predetermined width, and the first design data group is preferably extracted on the basis of the first partial exposure areas with the enlarged width, and in extracting the third design data group in the second data group extracting step, each of the second partial exposure areas is preferably enlarged by a predetermined width, and the third design data group is preferably extracted on the basis of the second partial exposure areas with the enlarged width.
In the second lithography pattern fabrication method, in extracting the first design data group in the first data group extracting step, a design data, among the design data each extending over two or more of the plural first partial exposure areas, which has a portion crossing a boundary of the first partial exposure areas and having a predetermined size or larger is preferably included in the first design data group, and in extracting the third design data group in the second data group extracting step, a design data, among the design data each extending over two or more of the plural second partial exposure areas, which has a portion crossing a boundary of the second partial exposure areas having a predetermined size or larger is preferably included in the third design data group.
In this case, in the third patterning step, multiple exposure is preferably conducted on a design pattern belonging to the fourth design data group.
The third lithography pattern fabrication method of this invention for generating, from plural design data corresponding to design patterns, lithography pattern data to be drawn correspondingly to the design patterns on a substrate and drawing the generated lithography pattern data on the substrate by using an exposure beam of charged particles, comprises an area dividing step of dividing a predetermined area where the plural design data are arranged, which corresponds to an area where the design patterns are to be formed, into plural partial exposure areas each in the shape of a stripe with a width corresponding to a deflection width of the exposure beam; a data group extracting step of extracting, from the plural design data, design data each falling within any of the plural partial exposure areas as a first design data group, and extracting design data each extending over two or more of the plural partial exposure areas as a second design data group; a first lithography pattern data generating step of generating first lithography pattern data of each of the plural partial exposure areas from the design data belonging to the first design data group; a second lithography pattern data generating step of generating second lithography pattern data of each of the plural partial exposure areas from the design data belonging to the second design data group; a first pattern lithography step of drawing first exposed patterns corresponding to the first lithography pattern data on the substrate by adjusting the exposure beam in accordance with the first lithography pattern data; and a second pattern lithography step of drawing second exposed patterns corresponding to the second lithography pattern data on the substrate by adjusting the exposure beam in accordance with the second lithography pattern data and by carrying out multiple exposure.
According to the third lithography pattern fabrication method, the design data each extending over two or more of the plural partial exposure areas are extracted from the plural design data as the second design data group, and the multiple exposure is carried out on the second lithography pattern data obtained from the design data belonging to the extracted second design data group. Accordingly, even in the second lithography pattern data divided between the adjacent partial exposure areas, a connection error is scarcely caused in the exposed pattern obtained based on the divided lithography pattern data.
In the third lithography pattern fabrication method, in extracting the first design data group in the data group extracting step, a design data, among the design data each extending over two or more of the plural partial exposure areas, which has a portion crossing a boundary of the partial exposure areas and having a predetermined size or larger is preferably included in the first design data group.
The charged particle lithography system of this invention for generating, from plural design data corresponding to design patterns, lithography pattern data to be drawn correspondingly to the design patterns on a substrate and drawing the generated lithography pattern data on the substrate by using an exposure beam of charged particles, comprises charged particle producing means for emitting the exposure beam to the substrate; substrate supporting means for supporting the substrate; beam shaping means disposed between the charged particle producing means and the substrate supporting means for shaping the exposure beam into a predetermined shape; charged particle controlling means for controlling an output state of the charged particle producing means; substrate position controlling means for determining a relative position of the substrate supporting means against the charge particle producing means; beam shape controlling means for controlling the beam shaping means to adjust the shape of the exposure beam; and lithography pattern data generating means for generating the lithography pattern data from the plural design data, and the lithography pattern data generating means includes an area dividing part for dividing a predetermined area where the plural design data are arranged, which corresponds to an area where the design patterns are to be formed, in to plural partial exposure areas each in the shape of a stripe with a variable width corresponding to a deflection width of the exposure beam; a data group extracting part for extracting, from the plural design data, design data each falling within any of the plural partial exposure areas as a first design data group, and extracting design data each extending over two or more of the plural partial exposure areas as a second design data group; and a data generating part for generating first lithography pattern data of each of the plural partial exposure areas from the design data belonging to the first design data group, and generating second lithography pattern data of each of the plural partial exposure areas from the design data belonging to the second design data group, the charged particle controlling means controls an output state of the charged particle producing means on the basis of the generated lithography pattern data, the substrate position controlling means changes a relative position of the substrate supported by the substrate supporting means against the exposure beam emitted by the charged particle producing means on the basis of the generated lithography pattern data, and the beam shape controlling means shapes the exposure beam into a stripe shape corresponding to each of the partial exposure areas on the basis of the generated lithography pattern data.
In the charged particle lithography system of this invention, the lithography pattern data generating means includes the area dividing part for dividing the predetermined area where the design data are arranged, which corresponds to the design pattern formation area, into the plural partial exposure areas each in the shape of a stripe with a width corresponding to the deflection width of the exposure beam, and the data group extracting part for extracting, from the plural design data, design data each falling within any of the stripe areas as the first design data group and extracting design data each extending over two or more of the partial exposure areas as the second design data group. Therefore, when the area dividing part divides the predetermined area where the design data of the second design data group are arranged into other partial exposure areas so that at least one of the design data of the second design data group can be prevented from extending over the boundary of the partial exposure areas, the first lithography pattern fabrication method or the second lithography pattern fabrication method of this invention can be definitely realized.
In the charged particle lithography system, the lithography pattern data generating means preferably conducts multiple exposure on the second lithography pattern data.